Stargate: Return of the Ancients, Season 2, Ep 5
by Aer-ki Jyr
Summary: Episode, "Awakening" Year: 2014
1. Chapter 1

The Traveler ship came out of hyperspace in high orbit around the third planet in yet another uncharted system within the Pegasus galaxy. The Alterrans had originally charted 14 planets in the system, but only 7 had survived to present day. The Captain of the _Ilssa_ casually brought up the orbital charts, mentally did the math and saw that the remaining planets were showing diminishing orbits and concluded that the other 7 had previously fallen into the star's gravity well and been destroyed. Additional mass at system center would have then added to the pull on the outer planets, which would explain their slow inward trek toward the star, but according to the original data, admittedly millions of years old, 12 of the 14 planets had been on slightly escalating orbits. What had caused the shift inward was a mystery that would have to be left for the ages. Captain Morinn wasn't here for a sightseeing tour…he was hunting Wraith.

Another Traveler ship had attached a locator beacon to a Wraith cruiser that had disappeared in this section of the galaxy. Apparently the suckers had managed to locate and deactivate the beacon, but the Travelers still had some idea of where to look and had assigned the _Ilssa_ and Captain Morinn 37 systems to scout while an additional 6 Traveler ships took the remainder of the long list. In total, the galaxy-wide survey was only 6% complete, so wherever they suspected they would find Wraith, they diverted to those locations immediately.

The third planet in the system was the largest…a blue/white gas giant. Around it circled 26 moons. The _Ilssa_'s crew began scanning and cataloging planetoid data as soon as they exited hyperspace and it took them only 13 minutes to hit paydirt.

"Captain!" one of the three bridge officers said with an eager voice. "We have surface structures on one of the moons…"

"Make that two of the moons," a female navigator said while checking a side console. "No, now make that three."

"What kind of structures?" Morinn asked, his eyes narrowing.

The first officer checked over the shoulder of the navigator and confirmed her findings, then he looked up at the Captain. "Wraith, boss."

"Any sign of ships in the area?" Morinn asked.

"None yet," the navigator reported.

The Captain chewed on his lip. "Continue scans. Let's see what we've got before we call it in."

"Now four moons…" the navigator updated.

"What's down there?" Morinn demanded.

"Not sure…too far away for a clean scan," the navigator reported. "But they're everywhere. All four moons are covered with them."

"With what exactly?" Morinn asked, his voice a mixture of curiosity and worry. "Wraith don't make a habit of building homes, they live on their ships. Are we looking at some sort of shipyard?"

"I…don't think so. They're not reading like ships," the other bridge officer said. "I'm pretty sure they're surface structures, but we'll have to make a closer pass to get more detail."

"No..." Morinn decided quickly. "We don't know what we're dealing with here, and we could easily be getting in over our head. We've confirmed a substantial Wraith presence, and that's enough. Take us on a lazy lap around the system, I want to confirm the number of planetoids with Wraith on them before we call this in. After that, we're out of here."

"Ah…" the navigator complained. "We're not gonna stick around for the fireworks this time?"

"Let's not push our luck," the Captain said cautiously. "Last time we almost lost the starboard engine to that suicide dart."

The navigator looked down at the burn marks on her left hand from the damage control effort. "Right…snoop and scoot it is. Plotting course now."

The Traveler ship took the next four hours scanning each planet and their constituent moons before jumping back into hyperspace. They relayed the senor data and locations of 19 Wraith occupied planetoids back to Atlantis...then moved on to the next system on their survey list.

* * *

><p>"Oh, dude, you have got to see this!"<p>

Luke Simpson made a noise beneath the blanket that covered his head, but no other response was forthcoming.

"No man, I'm serious!" his college roommate said with obvious enthusiasm. He was totally psyched. "The state of the union address. I watched it an hour ago in the lobby. I've got it on youtube right now. Get your ass out of bed and take a look at this. It's crazy shit!"

Luke pulled the blanket off his head and looked at his roommate with obvious malice. He'd been out late with Jessica and it was only 7:15 am. "I hate history."

"Haha…good choice of words. This is history in the making. Come on, get up. You're not going to believe me if I just tell you."

Luke frowned sarcastically. "Let's have a go at it anyway," he said, unmoving.

"Ah you're hopeless, you know that? The government just disclosed the fact that there are aliens everywhere, and we're fighting a fucking war up there right now! I swear I'm not making up this shit!"

Luke's eyes unglazed. "Come again?"

"Just look," his roommate said, grabbing his laptop and dumping it in Luke's lap.

Luke grumbled and sat up, then clicked on the youtube video…which he noticed already had over 50 million views. That was way too high…

He watched, bored but mildly curious what this was about as the President began his droll speech, then Luke's eyes unglazed when he heard the name "Aschen." When a female military officer beamed into the congress he swung his feet out of bed and squared the laptop on his lap.

"See, what did I tell you?" his roommate yelled victoriously. "This is crazy good!"

"Hush…" Luke told him as Carter went on to explain the situation. He watched silently until Carter beamed out, then cut off the rest of the President's speech and handed the laptop back to his roommate while he looked around for his jeans from last night. He found them in a wad behind his Xbox 360 and fished around for his cell phone.

He dialed a preset contact, completely ignoring the fact that his roommate was there.

"Who are you calling?" his roommate asked. He'd never seen Luke act like this before. He was suddenly ramrod straight and serious…usually he was laid back, droll, and mostly uninterested with anything in the world aside from girls, beer, and cartoons.

"Put me through to your commanding officer now!" Luke said in an altogether unfamiliar voice. "I don't care how busy he is, this is urgent. No, I will not wait. Put me through to him now, Lieutenant. That's an order."

"Dude, what's up?" his roommate asked.

Luke held up a wait finger.

"I don't care if my rank is technically invalid, you put me through now or I'll make my way to Cheyenne Mountain on my own. That's right, I know where it is and how to get in, remember? And no, I'm not talking about the front door either. No, I'm not taking any more of that bureaucratic bull. Carter is going to need all the help she can get, and from the sound of things we're already losing. So you put me through to your commanding officer right now. If I have to go the long way, I'm reassigning you to the arctic circle the moment my bird is back on my shoulder…do I make myself clear, Lieutenant?"

There was a brief pause in the conversation, then Luke nodded once with satisfaction.

His roommate walked in front of him and raised his shoulders and hands in question.

"Long story," Luke said just before the senior officer took the phone. "Yea, Karlson. I want in, now…and don't give me any of that clone crap. If the planet's in danger I'm not just going to sit on my fat ass and watch."

To his surprise, he didn't get any argument.

"Good," Luke said, closing his phone and holding it in his hand as he frantically started searching for a fresh towel. They were sending a car over for him in two hours. He needed to be cleaned up and packed before then. He looked around his room and decided to pack his gym bag with a few essentials. The PX would have everything else he needed when he got to the SGC.

"Luke, what the fuck is going on?"

"Sorry Brad, I gotta leave. Tell Jessica…it's been swell," he said as he grabbed the towel and a bar of soap and headed for the community showers in the center of the dorm. He walked out the door and disappeared, leaving his roommate thoroughly confused.

Luke's head popped back in the door. "Oh, and the name's not Luke. It's Jack. Jack O'Neill." He held up two fingers and animatedly added, "with two L's!"

Then he left for the showers.


	2. Chapter 2

The _Illuminasta_ dropped out of hyperspace in far orbit around the blue/white gas giant that had a number of moons covered with Wraith structures. The large cylindrical _Columnar_-class Alterran warship slipped smoothly out of hyperspace…then all hell broke loose.

"_Enemy contacts_," the male holographic avatar of the ship's computer reported immediately after reentry to normal space. It automatically raised shields and prepped the ship's replicator armor. A few small ripples were visible as the thickness layers were reset to correspond to the positions of enemy ships. "_Their numbers exceed our combat capabilities. Recommend immediate withdrawal_."

Chad Stevenson mentally activated the holographic display above his command control chair. The space surrounding the planet and moons was filled with clumps of Wraith ships…all of which were now shifting positions in response to their presence.

"_Hmmn…so much for undefended_," he said calmly. "_Identify ship variants present_."

"_Wraith fighter, cruiser variants A and C, biological transport, material transport, battleship, and dreadnaught…with an additional 2 new ship designs not cataloged within memory banks_," the overly formal hologram stated with just a touch of simulated exasperation.

On the hologram a swarm of darts aggressively broke away from the slower capital ships and moved towards the _Illuminasta_.

"_Gunners stand by_," Chad ordered. Behind him, his command crew of Lanteans leaned back in their smaller control chairs and brought the ship's plasma cannons online…but Chad refrained from opening the weapon's pods. He mentally set the ship's sensors to maximum volume and began recording as much tactical and technical data as they could from this range.

"_Hyperspace jammers spinning up_," _Illuminasta_ reported, highlighting several ships within the swarm that Chad noted numbered 2,145 capital ships and at present 3,000+ darts with that number rising by the second as they deployed from their orbital ships and rose from the surface of several planetoids. On the tactical holo the first of the Wraith darts closed within plasma cannon range and the Lantean gunners opened fire and began swatting them from the Columnar's perimeter.

The one and only door onto the bridge opened and Stan Stevenson ran out of the lift, down the long bridgeway, and stopped just behind Chad's chair. "_That's not good_," he noted as he scanned the holo, frowning. "_What is that?_" He pointed to one of the unknown ship designs.

"_Good question. Looks like the Wraith have been busy_."

Stan glanced at the small dots representing the darts as they were effortlessly picked off by the Lantean gunners. "_They don't usually waste darts without a reason_," he mentioned.

"_That's what I was thinking_," Chad agreed. "_Min,_ _anything curious out there that we're missing?_"

"_A great deal is curious…but if you wish to know the reason for the Wraith fighters' suicidal attacks, then I would suggest you pay closer attention to the surface activity_."

With a thought Chad brought up a long range scan of the nearest Wraith occupied moon.

"_Here_," _Illuminasta_ highlighted for the sake of alacrity. They only had a few minutes before the hyperspace destabilizers reached full power and took away their primary escape route.

On the surface there were a multitude of structures, bluish in color…but some of them were moving. It took a moment for Chad to recognize what he was seeing, then he immediately began to extend the weapon pods.

"_Those slick bastards_," Stan commented, slipping into an unoccupied gunner's seat. He assumed priority command and the previous Lantean settings reset and gave him full access to the ship's systems. He took command of the ship's ventral pesqua launcher and launched a massive swarm, a fourth of the hold's capacity, as soon as a minimal breach between the separating pods was attained.

The leading racks of pesqua glowed to life and leapt up from the depths of the ship and exited in a thin stream that thickened as the pods continued to separate.

Chad's dorsal-launched pesqua were half a second behind, and made for the second prong in an elongating fork as they raced from the ship, weaving around a few Wraith ships in the way, and headed down into the atmosphere of the closest moon towards the closing armor shells beginning to cover the external exits of several Wraith surface Hives. The massive colonies were burrowed into the planet's crust, with only a few large prongs leading up to the surface. The moon's bedrock effectively acted as a massive shield, with the surface exits, each the size of a small city, as the one major weak spot in their defenses.

The prongs also held substantial weaponry, but none that could reach all the way up to the Columnar's high orbit. However, since the Wraith were effectively caught with their pants down...their defensive armor shields weren't raised…they had to distract the Alterrans. Thus the darts were being sacrificed to buy time.

Similar tactics had been used during the Wraith/Lantean war…but the Stevensons all possessed the knowledge of the Repositories, which included the entire military history of the Alterra, including every tactic and battle the Ancients had fought in or observed…and the Wraith's distractionary tactic, while ingenious, was an old and familiar stratagem. As it was, the clones had acted just in time.

The two pesqua streaks separated into 5 groups and slipped through the closing armor shells and dug deep into the subsurface hives. Using a combination of remote control and autonomous targeting and navigational protocols, Chad and Stan cored through level after level within the monstrous structures, depleting the pesquas' power charge just shy of empty, then detonating them in the most ideal positions possible. Even as the thick armor shells locked into place, the Alterran missiles spun about inside, chewing the interior to bits and causing maximum damage possible.

The quick thinking proved to be quite the coup, but only 40% of the targeted colonies had been damaged. They were so massive that not even the pesqua swarm could completely destroy them. It would take several more attacks, but now that the armor was in place, burrowing through it would seriously diminish charge prior to penetration, thus mitigating the amount of damage possible to roughly 10% effectiveness.

A host of cruisers were beginning to close within attack range as even more darts swarmed around the insanely large Alterran warship. The ship's plasma cannons were busy killing the tiny ships and began taking a few long range shots at the approaching cruisers as all the Wraith ships within senor range traveled at maximum speed towards them.

"_Min, a few deep planetoid scans please, then it's time to go_," Stan said.

"_Soon_…" Chad amended. "_Let's knock out a few ships first_."

"_Their jammers are reaching saturation point_," Stan argued.

"_But they're not in position to block our exit_," Chad said as he mentally relayed a navigational display to Stan's chair. He pinpointed 7 exit vectors that the Wraith wouldn't close off for several minutes.

"_Alright, if you want to play it that close. I'll take the Lox_."

"_Min, recalibrate the primary weapon for 5% bursts_," Chad said, mentally bringing up the fire controls. He could make the adjustment himself, but the computer was faster…and supplemented orders with tangent imperatives. In this case, _Illuminasta_ went ahead and factored in the weapon's new parameters into the combat computer, which gave new damage estimates 'at a glance' through the tactical systems. Other minor recalibrations were made as well, all within a blink of a second. The Alterrans' pseudo AI's gave the crew both the flexibility and speed required to operate at maximum tandem efficiency, exceeding anything that the ship's computer or crew alone could accomplish.

Chad fired the first of his 20 shots at a cluster of cruisers, managing to hit and destroy two with the single potent energy lance. He adjusted his aim while plotting a basic course away from the gas giant. He relayed the waypoint mentally to _Illuminasta_ and let the ship's computer navigate the ship while he tilted the axis for optimal firing position…which meant at times the ship was moving sideways towards target. It looked ungainly, but with the ship's inertial engines such maneuvers were as easy to accomplish as moving forward on a linear trajectory.

Two Lox blasts leapt out from the starboard pylons and shredded five cruisers in a hail of biological debris and smaller, secondary explosions. Six more of the Wraith ships were damaged, but not destroyed by energy arcs coming off the destroyed ships. In some cases, five Wraith ships were chain hit by the Ancient energy weapons. The remaining cruiser clusters immediately broke ranks to increase formation spacing.

Chad noted the change…the speed of their hive mind interconnectivity was impressive, but they didn't stand a chance against the Alterrans' superior firepower. The only threat they posed was with their offensive capability, multiplied by their superior numbers. As far as defense went, the Wraith were a poor match for the Alterrans. Then again, most insectoid species didn't put a lot of stock into defense, and regarded most units as expendable. Quite the opposite from the Alterran approach. Their massive Columnars were built around the strategy of limited, controlled engagements where they would have the upper hand and not lose a ship…while the enemy forces would be systematically whittled down and attrition would be in their favor.

It was the superior strategy…lest the Columnar come against a threat that could eat through its impressive defenses and superior mass and kill the ship. In which case a large percentage of the Alterran fleet would be eliminated in one battle. The Columnar were designed as chess pieces to be moved around the galactic board, and were not considered expendable…which was why a pullback was necessary at this point. The Wraith fleet had more than enough firepower to overwhelm the single massive ship, though some of those numbers could be attenuated with various battle strategies. Firepower wasn't the be all and end all…how you used it mattered a great deal. But in this case, it wasn't worth the risk…and the numbers were so stacked that there wasn't any choice but to retreat. But not before they added some attrition to the Wraith side. Alterran shield energy was much easier to regenerate than Wraith hull armor…let alone them having to construct new ships.

As the _Illuminasta_ approached departure point, large spherical regions of the tactical map were shaded, showing the regions that the hyperdrives would not function within. The spheres moved with the Dreadnaughts that housed them as they attempted to trap the Columnar and sacrifice as many ships as needed to bring it down. The ship's computer was constantly running calculations and making subtle alterations to Chad's navigational orders and saw that there was no danger. They would reach the waypoint with 47 seconds to spare.

The Alterran/Lantean crew continued to down Wraith ships as the stress on the Columnar's shields gradually increased, but well within tolerance levels. The Wraith plasma cannons were dangerous enough, but the Ancients were good at building shields, and with a potentia backing them up with enormous recharging power, it would take a far greater concentration of Wraith firepower before the power trend would go negative and the shield strength would begin to deplete. The Wraith fleet wasn't in position to do that just yet, so it was simply a waste of Wraith resources as the Columnar traveled to its way point, engaged hyperspace engines, and left the Wraith-controlled star system.

The massive Dreadnaughts, each 2/3s the size of a Hive ship, spun down their hyperspace jammers and began to redeploy into previous positions, as did the rest of the massive Wraith fleet. Below, on the single moon that had come under attack, the surface hives began the slow regeneration process that would eventually restore their biological constructs to perfect working order. The Wraith were a patience species…and given enough time could regrow any and all damage taken. Today was the first day the Wraith had bought themselves more time. The first time they had turned the Alterrans back. They didn't care about the losses they'd incurred, and news of the small victory spread throughout the Wraith Hive mind across the galaxy. This new/old enemy was formidable, but not invincible.

The Wraith had just gotten a taste of hope…and of the numbers it would take to turn back the Alterra. And that was a very dangerous thing indeed. The war was no longer one sided…they had a chance, but it would require a great effort, and a significant change within the Wraith on an order of magnitude greater than any seen over the past 10,000 years.

So was the conclusion of the eldest warmaster, nestled safely within the heavily defended Wraith 'inner core'…a series of 26 worlds that the Wraith viewed as most sacred. The Lanteans had called this particular world Ijara, now it was home to some 4 million Wraith that knew it was Orocein, which translated vaguely as 'war prize.'

The warmaster had no 'name,' per say, but rather a telepathic presence unique to this particular queen. Her presence was so strong, in fact, that most Wraith became almost inert in her presence. She found this particularly annoying…what good were her subjects if they became unfunctional? Thus she chose to remain hidden, deep within the crust of Orocein, and controled her brood from afar. She could see what they saw, feel with their hands, and pry into their thoughts at will. They had no secrets from her, for hers was the most powerful of minds.

She saw the battle at Urutie through the Hive mind, and breathed in heavily when the enemy ship finally withdrew. Her mind worked fast, and within moments she had analyzed the situation and began issuing orders across the galaxy. Those Wraith that had returned to slumber, must awaken. It was time to multiply…but with so little food in the galaxy, and their cloning farms still within preliminary development stages, another source of food would be required…and one was available, but it would require the sacrifice of many Wraith to devolve to a lesser level…even those that had not been cast down.

Thus it was that the warmaster ordered. She sensed hesitancy within the Hive mind as the other queens considered her order as a 'request'…but none challenged her, nor withheld their compliance. Drastic measures must be taken, they all agreed. And if this was to be it, then so it would be.

Wraith gatherers across the galaxy that had returned to slumber began to arise again…and the warmaster sent another command to her personal brood on Ijara, awakening the builders, warriors, scientists, and others that had not been needed in mass numbers since the defeat of the Lanteans and the beginning of the tranquil years of dominance over the galaxy. Most of these other castes remained in stasis until they heeded their queen's call to service…while the gathering caste tended the humans throughout the galaxy. For 10,000 years the gatherers had been the active Wraith within the Hive mind, save for a small number of the others that remained awake to tend the Wraith infrastructure. A few more had awakened recently to assist with the new shipbuilding efforts to counter this new threat, but most could not be awakened when there was too little food to go around as it was. Those gatherers that could, had returned to sleep, diminishing the risk of their own food poisoning them, and allowing their limited human resources to be utilized more strategically.

No longer.

The humans within the Pegasus galaxy had never encountered the true Wraith civilization…only the gatherers sent to pluck them from their worlds, and then the confines of the transport ships that would take them back to the gatherer Hives or, for a smaller number, back to a Wraith world where they would feed the others who remained awake to ward the sleepers and attend the queens.

Even when Atlantis emerged with its human whelps, no more than the gatherers had been tasked to deal with the nuisance…for very few other ships remained, and those stood guard over the inner core. The massive Wraith war machine that had so easily defeated the Lanteans had been dismantled, so it was that the humans actually entertained the notion that they stood a chance of defeating the Wraith.

With the warmaster's order, that war machine began to regrow…


	3. Chapter 3

She was aware for several days, wrapped up in her cocoon as she quickly developed over the course of 3 weeks, before she received the summons to arise. The small Wraith queen pushed her hands forward, tearing a hole in the cocoon casing that covered her prone form. A seam formed and she pushed her hands up through it into the cold air. Using the strength born into her species, she pried the halves apart, and had them recoil partway when she released pressure. She lifted her head up slightly into the misty air and began to pull her nude body away from the umbilical cords attached to her back.

With enough pressure they disconnected and retracted into the pod that had grown her as she sat up, blinking fluid from her eyes as she drew her first breath of air.

Before her she saw a fully developed queen…but more than that she felt her considerable presence inside her head. Instructions were quick to follow, and two attendant Wraith assisted her as she climbed out of the pod and dressed in clothing tailored to her smaller size. The red haired queen soon disappeared, her task done, and the attendants escorted the newly 'born' queen to another chamber within the gatherer Hive ship. There she fed…on an assortment of vegetables. Her hands had yet to develop the organelles required to drain sustenance from living beings, but that would come in time. Until then she would rely on her vestigial digestionary apparatus, which would eventually grow dormant as her body developed.

After she fed she mentally connected with her attendants and issued her first orders. She felt them submit to her will, small as it was, and they escorted her to her ship. With an escort of soldiers joining them in the hangar bay, they left the massive hive ship and jumped into hyperspace. They enemy had yet to reactivate their new Attero device, destructive as it was…but the Wraith had since devised a probe to test hyperspace availability, and one had been launched and transitioned cleanly a few moments ago, verifying the safety of transit.

The small Wraith 'scout' ship carried the new queen for three days until they arrived at a planet with a Hive ship in orbit. It was currently culling humans from the surface for the second time in 3 years. They couldn't take too many more without hurting future productivity numbers…yet they had to have food now, and forward thinking was, more often than not these days, sacrificed in the panic of the moment.

That was about to change. This Hive ship was newly constructed, and under the current direction of a distant queen. The caretakers onboard were, as usual, exceeding their culling mandate. Tight control needed to be maintained or the broods would follow their genetic dispositions to their self destruction. They were tools, designed to be utilized by the queens. They could not function on their own. So many gatherer queens had been lost in recent years, that control over their fleets had become tenuous, and many valuable resources had been lost. The Wraith attendants had moderate intelligence and originality, which proved useful at times, but they had no sense of balance…and the other soldiers under their command were little more than drones, who would follow the attendants' will without question. Without queen control, the vast majority of Wraith would eventually destroy themselves through varying levels of stupidity.

The Wraith aboard this Hive ship had been reassigned from other Hives. Normally a new queen would develop and then grow her own attendants and soldiers…no others variants were possible for gatherer queens to produce. But in these difficult times, normal procedure had to be abandoned, and this new queen had the added responsibility of bending these Wraith to her limited will. Being not of her own brooding that would be difficult, but not impossible. They were bred to follow. Asserting control with her limited telepathic ability would be the challenge.

The small scout ship entered the cavernous hangar bay onboard the new Hive ship and landed smoothly. The queen could sense the minds of those Wraith nearest her, but she couldn't feel most of them onboard the Hive. Frustrating…

She emerged from the ship between two lines of soldiers…and was greeted by over 100 of the Hive's own soldiers and attendants on the hangar deck.

Reaching out to their minds she asserted herself, familiarizing them with her mental avatar within the Hive mind as well as making sure each of them bent to her will. All those within range did, and she silently walked through those assembled, who parted for her as she moved, and walked into her new Hive, issuing orders to stop the culling on the planet below and to recall all 'darts.' They would remain in orbit for a few days, call three of the newly constructed cruisers to their escort, then depart on the new mission that the gatherer queen that spawned her had given her.

They had a new herd to cull…

* * *

><p>Jack O'Neill, after being picked up by an Air Force car, was driven to the nearest military base, put on a C-130 enroute to the East Coast, then hitched a ride on two more military flights before he was finally whisked away in another car and arrived at the Pentagon. Colonel Karlson met him at the entrance and quickly escorted him inside before any of the protesters had a chance to gather.<p>

Ever since the President's full disclosure a small, but outraged portion of the population had been making considerable noise and news wherever they could. Their reasons were all different, from religious fundamentalism to conspiracy theorists to anti-war activists. There were protests outside government buildings on a daily basis…and they were growing, as more and more people finally came to the conclusion that this wasn't some massive hoax.

Jack and Karlson made it inside without drawing too much attention. "Quite the mob you've got," Jack commented.

"It's to be expected," the Colonel acknowledged as he led the way through a maze of corridors. "We kind of dumped it on them all at once."

"Long overdue if you ask me."

Karlson shrugged. "Moot point now. We've got bigger concerns to deal with. I assume your memories have remained intact?"

Jack frowned. "Yes…why?"

"A few speculated that they might not hold. Just wondering. General Carter wants you on the first available transport and on Springfield ASAP. There's one leaving in 3 hours headed for Reach, you can gate in from there."

"Wait a second," Jack said, putting a hand in front of Karlson to stop him. "Springfield and Reach?" he said, raising his eyebrows sarcastically.

"Our two most secure and industrialized planets…you've got a lot to catch up on, I'm afraid."

"No, I get that…but the names?"

Karlson frowned. "What about them?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Nothing…what is this transport I'm taking?"

"Something our engineers came up with," the Colonel said as they continued walking. "Basically a big, empty shell with engines to haul cargo from planet to planet."

"So you're sending me UPS?"

Karlson cracked a smile. "A little more upscale than that. This transport is configured for personnel. It's taking 250 recruits out to the training center on Reach."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Volunteer recruits? That was fast."

Karlson nodded. "We had over 500 sign up within the first two hours. As it is, most are going to have to wait their turn while we arrange transportation."

"Why can't they just go through the stargate?"

The Colonel cringed slightly. "Because we no longer possess the stargate, the I.O.A. does and we're not on good terms right now."

"You LOST the stargate? How the hell did that happen?"

"Long story," he said as they reached a nondescript door which Karlson opened with a keycard. "After you."

Jack walked into the dimly lit room and found it was mostly empty, save for one control station with a very bored Lieutenant sitting behind a control panel. "Sooo now what?"

Karlson glanced at the Lieutenant. "Moon base."

Jack frowned. "What moon ba…" he said, disappearing in a flash of white light.

After spending a lovely few hours with a hoard of obnoxious teenage and college students, Jack was spared the horror of having to sit next to them on the transport and was instead allowed onto the crew deck, with access to the bridge. Most of the military personnel flying the transport had idolized General O'Neill, and even though they'd been informed that this was in fact his clone, they still felt it necessary to give him special treatment.

Unfortunately the trip out to Reach would take the transport 13 days at maximum speed, and Jack was stuck playing cards and running laps around the hold the entire time…while keeping well clear of the kindergarteners. By the time the transport arrived and landed at Reach, Jack was on the edge of insanity. He hadn't been this bored since…well, his entire life, and most of the other guy's too.

When he was escorted off the landing tarmac and into a small Hummer variant, he slid into the back seat not caring where he was being taken, just glad as hell to get off that ship. He sarcastically waved goodbye to the throng of recruits beginning to spill out the exit ramp and leaned back in his adequately padded seat and took in a deep breath of fresh, alien air.

The Hummer roared to life and took him along a paved road into the center of 'town.' This part of Reach was sprawling with one and two story buildings, with more being added at a steady rate. In the center of it all was a large plaza covered with black asphalt surrounding a solitary, upright ring at the center.

"Thank god," Jack said as they drove towards the stargate.

"Not much of one for ship travel, sir?" the soldier sitting in shotgun asked.

"Nope," Jack answered. He hadn't set foot through a gate in years.

The Hummer pulled up short of the gate and the soldier stepped out with O'Neill. They walked over to the DHD and the soldier saluted sharply. "Pleasure to meet you in person, sir."

"Thank you, Corporal. But you do realize I'm just the mini me?"

"All the same to us, sir."

"Really?" Jack said, studying him closely. "I assume you know the address to Springfield?"

"Yes, sir…" the Corporal said, snapping into action. He dialed the address quickly, then hit the activation button.

Jack watched the kawoosh form, feeling a sense of homesickness deep in his gut. "Need a GDO?"

"Normally, yes. But not from Reach. The iris at stargate command automatically lowers for us."

"Thank you, Corporal."

"Anytime, sir."

Jack blew out a short breath and walked into the event horizon…hoping that the iris really was down on the other side.


	4. Chapter 4

The Wraith Hive ship emerged from hyperspace over a deserted world. It had once been home to one of the seven original Wraith broods who had first come into contact with the humans, acquired their genetics and transformed into their present bipedal physiology. With that change came a need for a different climate to live in, and the harsh, rugged, dry surface conditions that the old Wraith had thrived within had become undesirable. Thus the homeworlds were abandoned…along with their culling herds.

The new Wraith queen ordered her subjects to do a lifeform scan of the planet, and was pleased to confirm that it was literally overflowing with Vertarin…the first food source of the Wraith. In their absence, the spider-like creatures had multiplied and filled the planet. They now numbered in the trillions on this planet alone. A feast beyond measure awaited the Wraith…but at a cost.

When the Wraith fed on Vertarin, they would begin to absorb their genetics and transform back into what they had once been. Presently, such transformations were used as punishment and a means of resource gathering. The digger caste was a subsect of Wraith society that lived in burrows and fed off a lifeform known as the Ketarsis. It was more advanced than the Vertarin, but still vastly inferior to humans…however, it did provide the Wraith with several unique and useful abilities, and thus the diggers were used to harvest raw materials and transport them above and below ground to collection stations where human-form Wraith would claim and transport them to the appropriate locations. The diggers lived apart from the rest, placed on worlds rich in natural resources, then relocated when those resources dried up. They were used as biological mining units, lacking the intelligence for any cognitive thinking. They obeyed without question, and reproduced on their own…with a few downcasts added to their ranks when the situation warranted it.

The Vertarin-form Wraith was equally unintelligent, but physically weaker and vulnerable to nearly everything. They had lived within their biotech structures and upgraded them to the point capable of space travel, but they were societally useless, save for their queens. They alone possessed the intelligence to construct technology…while the rest were nothing more than mindless throngs.

The present day queens would not be devolving into their previous form, but a vast majority of the other Wraith castes would, on the queens' command. It was beyond distasteful, but it would allow the Wraith as a species to multiply…then when the war was won and the human food supply was stabilized, they degenerate Wraith could potentially return to their present form. It was a long shot, but if they needed to be sacrificed for the good of the Hive, they would do so willingly.

The new Wraith queen ordered the Hive ship to descend to the planet's surface. The massive vessel slowly broke from orbit and dipped down into the atmosphere. There was no rush, and such maneuvers were delicate with a vessel of this size. Slowly…slowly…the Hive decelerated and dropped down to the planet's surface. It eventually came to rest, hovering over the desert landscape with a scattering of Vertarin moving about on their stubby 6 legs beneath.

Off to the west was a large colony of the critters, and the Hive ship moved towards them. They were situated in a shallow depression where the ivitali crystals were most heavily present. Fluid would well up from beneath the surface and crystallize when it encountered the heavy, hot sunlight. The Vertarin ate the crystals, and thus flourished on the barren landscape. Set beside the depression was the remains of an ancient Wraith city, now half destroyed from the ravages of time. The Hive's sensors indicated that even more Vertarin scurried about within its confines.

When the Hive had finally cast its show over the depression and the thousands of Vertarin within, it activated its heavy collection beams and began transporting the creatures into the collection holds en mass. As it did so, swarms of darts emerged from the ship and flew down over the remains of the old city and began scooping up smaller numbers of Vertarin where they were exposed. Still other darts flew out over the desert plains and picked up more of the scattered creatures.

The Hive would remain on the planet until they had filled their holds. They would not be consuming any of them, however, nor would any of the other gatherers. This food was to be taken back to the inner core, where the largest number of Wraith slept. They would be the ones to transform…and the gatherers would gorge them until their numbers increased beyond measure. Then, they would have the strength and numbers to defeat this new/old threat.

In the mean time, the Hive would continue to sustain itself off the humans previously collected and others yet to be culled, while the expanding human farms fed the few Wraith in the other castes that were to be spared the degeneration. The gatherers had to provide for their own food, but the exchange was well worth not having to devolve.

The new Wraith queen was glad for that…because she didn't feel she had the strength to command such an unpleasant thing. She would need to grow considerably more powerful…then, and only then would she have full control. At which point, they would do whatever she required of them.

She released her hold on the ceiling of her chamber and dropped to the floor, where she snagged another purple-colored piece of fruit. She ate it slowly as her mind was elsewhere. She reveled in the numbers of Vertarin being collected. Fulfillment of one's duty provided a Wraith with a deep sense of accomplishment and purpose. It was their reason for being, and at the moment, this Wraith queen's purpose was to feed the broods. And that she would…

* * *

><p>"<em>Well now, isn't that an impressive sight?<em>" Sheppard asked from the cockpit of his cloaked jumper. "_Must have something important to protect_."

"_So it would seem_," Teyla echoed beside him. "_Just make sure that we are not detected. We will not survive long if we are._"

"_No kidding_," John said as he weaved his way around a cluster of 14 cruisers. They'd entered the Wraith-held system on a new class of Alterran scout ship, under full cloak, then left it parked on the edge of the system under the care of a small Lantean crew while they slowly crept their way inward.

They chose one of the other planets with a Wraith presence to snoop on, this one on the opposite side of the star from the gas giant where the Columnar/Wraith battle had taken place. This small planet still had a large number of ships guarding it, and according to basic sensors was covered with Wraith structures.

"_Where do you want to start?_" John asked.

Teyla thought for a moment. "_Here_," she said, pointing to a seemingly random point on the heads up display…not with her finger, but with her mind.

Both John and the jumper received her coordinates and the heads up display zoomed in on the spot in question.

"_It's remote, with a large track of forest to the south. We should be able to land the jumper in a safe location and travel in on foot._"

"_For some reason I don't think anywhere does there counts as 'safe,' but why not_," he said, altering course. They put down in the closest thing they could find to a clearing within the supple vegetation. Small blue-green plants bent under the weight of the puddle jumper and were pressed into the ground beneath the cloaked ship. The two Alterrans exited through the rear hatch wearing cloaking devices of their own.

Sheppard looked back and frowned. "_Might as well be a Klingon Bird of Prey in the park_…"

"_A what?_" Teyla asked.

"_Never mind. Let's just hope nobody comes walking this way_," he said, getting his bearings. "_After you_."

Teyla walked ahead of him, visible as a thin wire outline on his armor's heads up display, but he could also feel her presence, so staying together wasn't going to be a problem. John took one look back at the 'imprint' in the vegetation and shook his invisible head. Not his best work…

The pair of Alterrans moved quickly in a smooth walk/jog through the erratic forest. Moisture was everywhere, with frequent puddles to navigate around and an assortment of tree-dwelling critters visible on their lifeform sensors…but very few remained on the ground. Apparently this planet, or this area of the planet anyway, was an arboreal ecosystem.

Four dekmas later the first of the Wraith structures became visible. It wasn't situated in a clearing, exactly. It looked like it'd been built and the forest had then been allowed to grow up around it. The Alterrans split up, with each taking an opposite track around the roughly house-sized construct. Sheppard came across a narrow path leading to and away from the Wraith 'hut' and decided to walk up and ring the doorbell, metaphorically speaking.

The 'door' turned out to be sealed shut, and looked more like a low garage door than the typical doors found on a Hive ship, or even the surface facilities that he'd raided in the past. This was distinctly different.

The rest of the hut was straight up Wraith construct, and Sheppard glanced it over a second time as he waited for Teyla to make her way around the perimeter. He felt her walk up behind him.

"_Nothing else in sight_," she said through their comlink.

"_Alright_," Sheppard said, waving his hand in front of the door control.

Nothing happened.

"_It has to be able to_…" Teyla began to correct him.

"_Yea, yea…I know_," John said, deactivating his cloaking device. He quickly swiped his hand in front of the control and the low, wide door pulled open with a jerk. He recloaked to hide both his presence and his shame. He could feel Teyla smirking.

They walked in the door and found…an empty building.

"_There_," Teyla said, physically pointing to the floor in what essentially was a large Wraith barn.

They both walked up to a large hole that led to a dirt tunnel angling steeply down into the ground.

"_Not what I expected_," Sheppard commented.

"_Same here_," Teyla agreed.

"_Let's try that path_."

Both of them backed out of the odd structure, closed the door, and ran off down the path. They found it interconnected with a number of other dirt paths, and explored many of them. They found more of the empty huts and a larger 'roadway' comprised of some firm moss coating. It was too smooth and linear to be random, which meant the Wraith had engineered it this way on purpose. A few minutes later they found out why.

"_Hold up_," Sheppard said, stopping mid run.

"_I hear it too_," Teyla said, referring to the sound of scampering feet.

"_Off the road_," Sheppard suggested. He took the right side, Teyla the left, and they moved back into the vegetation.

The sound grew louder and louder, but thanks to the Alterrans' enhanced hearing it took some time for the source to finally pass them on the moss road. A large lifeform, the size of a horse and looking all the world like a giant ant passed them carrying some kind of package on its back. Behind it came another, and another, and another in a long train of creatures, all of which were moving faster than the Alterrans had been jogging. Teyla stopped counting after a hundred and it was well over five minutes before the last of the train passed them by.

"_Ok_," Sheppard said, stepping back out onto the path. "_That was weird_."

"_Yes it was…and what's even more disturbing is I think those things were Wraith_."

"_I thought you'd lost your Wraith sense?_"

"_I did, but did you see their mandibles_."

Sheppard cringed. "_Yea, I was kinda hoping I was imagining things_."

"_I'm pretty sure those were feeding orifices_," Teyla said. "_Let's see where they came from_."

"_Alright, but we're getting pretty far away from the jumper. Let's not take too long_."

"_Agreed_."

Three hours later, still unable to backtrack the supply train, John and Teyla came across a larger structure…one with Wraith males wandering about, interacting with the giant ants as they offloaded their small packets into the hold of a grounded cruiser. More moved about, doing other things…and it looked like the smaller male Wraith were definitely the ones in charge.

Screaming sounds were also audible over the commotion din, and Teyla mentally nudged Sheppard in that direction. They worked their way around the edges of the open areas, making sure not to accidentally run into one of the scurrying Wraith. As they got closer to the building, they realized the noises were coming from the other side. They slipped past two Wraith males and circled around the building until they came across a thin line of the ants carrying wriggling creatures on their backs out of the building and down a nearby trail. It was the ones being carried that were making the screaming noises.

"_More Wraith?_" Sheppard asked.

Teyla shook her head. "_Wrong color_."

"_How do you know there aren't brown Wraith?_"

"_Let's say we find out_," she said, moving toward the entrance/exit to the building.

Sheppard mumbled something and followed her. The ants coming out were well spaced, but the doorway wasn't much bigger than the others they saw. One more of the ants came out and suddenly Teyla sprinted down the tunnel into the building.

_Right_, John thought, waiting.

He got Teyla's mental thumbs up and waited for the next ant to come out, then turned the corner and ran into the Wraith building. The tunnel was longer than he thought, so he pressed his muscles to their limit, moving across the ground faster than any human could manage. He ducked off to the left side and pressed his back against the wall while Teyla stood in a similar position on the right side. Another of the ants with a wriggling passenger scurried into view and out of the building.

They stood in a long, curving corridor that disappeared to the left and right, while the ants were cutting across it from straight ahead. Teyla headed off down the right corridor and Sheppard followed. They snooped around the interior of the building for more than ten minutes before they came upon a large holding cell. They stood on a platform that looked down into a large, arena-like circle filled with the smaller ant-like creatures. They had the same 8 legs and bulbous head, but the rest of their physiology didn't match up. Their movements were lethargic or nonexistent…until one of the Wraith ants climbed down a side ramp, grabbed one of the little things and lifted it up. The thing shrieked and moved in a flurry of twitching, kicking movements until the ant bit into it and held on.

A moment later it's movements settled down a bit and the ant released its feeding hold and tipped the thing up onto its back, using two of its 8 legs to hold it in place while it climbed up and out on its other six. Apparently the smaller creatures couldn't climb the steep ramps, because they all stayed in place.

"_I did not need to see that_," Sheppard commented.

"_It didn't finish feeding_," Teyla noted grimly.

"_Snack for later?_"

"_Or just a means to subdue them_…" Teyla said, unsure. "_There's a lot more going on here than we thought_."

Sheppard nodded. "_Let's get back to the jumper. Then let's see how much of their movements we can track from the sky._"

"_Good thinking_."


	5. Chapter 5

Jack walked out of the stargate into the gateroom of the new SGC where he was welcomed by the sight of forcefields surrounding the descent ramp and platform. Behind the shields were a pair of machine gun turrets, unmanned, that tracked his movements. A moment later the shields dropped and a green jump-suited female walked out of a sliding door and greeted him.

"Welcome to Springfield," she said with a smile. "I assume you're General O'Neill's clone?"

"General?" Jack said, surprised. "Is my _progenitor_ around?" he said, throwing the impressive word out on purpose.

The woman frowned. "No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

"General O'Neill went AWOL during the whole gate-snatch scenario. We haven't been able to find him since."

"Really? Well that's…unexpected…but it does explain some things."

"This way, sir. General Carter has been expecting you for some time."

"She has, has she? Lead on then…"

The woman smiled. "You don't have a rank yet, do you?" she said, walking.

"Technically no," Jack admitted.

"Good. Then I won't get in trouble for saying you're cuter than I expected," she said, winking at him.

"You don't say," Jack said sarcastically. "Well, even if I did have rank that sort of thing wouldn't get you in trouble," he said appreciatively.

She pulled open a door and stood beside it, looking back at him. "Oh yes it would…sir," she said, smiling naughtily. "Up the stairs and on the right."

"Thank you," Jack said, wryly smiling back as he took to the staircase. It circled upward into a short hallway with four doors. He carefully stepped up and knocked on the first door to his right.

"Come in," he heard a muffled, yet familiar voice say.

He opened the door and walked in…to find Sam sitting behind a ridiculously large desk. She looked up at him and her eyes widened. "Jack…"

* * *

><p>The new Wraith queen took her precious cargo back to the inner core, some 8,000 of the Vertarin in total. When her Hive ship exited hyperspace, her cruiser escort was supplemented by a dozen more ships from the defense fleet surrounding the Urutie system. There were 19 worlds occupied by the Wraith in the system, making it the most populous of the inner core systems. Technically one of the 19 was the primary world, and the rest were offshoots. It was to that particular moon that her Hive ship was descending. On the surface were hundreds of surface Hives, along with some freshly grown holding cells on the surface…which was where their cargo was to be delivered.<p>

The Hive ship lowered above the corrals and began beaming down their living cargo. The Vertarin were especially good at jumping, and because of this the walls holding them in were exceptionally high…almost reaching up to touch the underside of the Hive ship. Slowly, a few dozen at a time, the creatures were deposited into two of the 412 holding cells. Once the offload was complete, the Hive ship returned to space, launched a test probe to confirm the Attero device hadn't been reactivated, and jumped back into hyperspace. It would be making continuous round trips back to the homeworld in the foreseeable future, feeding the Wraith on the surface with their new sustenance. That was the role of a gatherer…and the new queen was quickly and efficiently slipping into her role within Wraith society.

* * *

><p>Ryan sat, tapping his fingers on the table as he reviewed the surveillance report that Sheppard had filed. Teyla's insights were particularly disturbing, though he could find no fault with them. It seemed that there was more to the Wraith than he'd previously thought, and that disturbed him, given the fact that he had a detailed account of his counterparts' wars to purge the Pegasus galaxy of the menace, thanks to Janus. The man had warned him that events might not match up between realities, but he hadn't expected this much deviation. He silently reminded himself to pay less credence to Janus's other reality reports. He had to deal with this reality, and he couldn't start making unwarranted assumptions.<p>

Janus's reports had indicated 3 to 5 variants of Wraith in the other realities, none of which matched the ant-like version that Sheppard had found. The smaller creatures matched up with a species tagged as the Rik in Janus's detailed files, but the Lanteans had never encountered them here.

The presence of such a large fleet also made Ryan rethink his current deployment strategies. It seemed the Wraith had been holding back and letting the Alterrans kick the crap out of their fleet across the galaxy…but when it came to this particular system they were clearly of a different mind, and had considerably more warships left than he'd guessed.

He needed more intelligence…and he didn't have it. He'd hoped this war would be short, but apparently that wasn't going to be the case. It looked like the Wraith were going to put up more of a fight than they had for his counterparts.

Figured_. _Ryan always had had a penchant for bad luck, and it seemed his transformation to Alterran hadn't rid him of it.

He reached out and hit the comm button on his office desktop, along with a numeric sequence.

"What is it that you require?" an Asgard voice replied in English.

"_Tell Hirrith that I need him to set up a strategic simulation group_," Ryan said in Lingara_. "I need him to simulate Wraith forces in a war games scenario…and I need him to beat me_."

"_It will be done_," the Asgard said, this time in his native tongue.

Ryan deactivated the comm. If anything, the Asgard were great strategists, and it was time Ryan stopped trying to predict the Wraith and focus on fighting them. In order to do that, he needed someone else to think like the Wraith…and who better than an Asgard?

Freed of the burden, Ryan began thinking along new lines almost immediately, belatedly realizing he should have taken this tac long ago. The key to winning any war, was to stay true to one's self and upgrade the way you fought, not changing to meet your enemy. Granted, he hadn't made that mistake, but he hadn't been approaching this fight as a real war…more of a housecleaning project.

Problem was, he didn't have the Alterran personnel to fight a real war. Which meant that he and the others were going to have to be devious…

* * *

><p>A man sat in a cross legged, meditative position on the floor of his quarters' porch, looking out over the impressive landscape that was the north pier of the city. The Ancient shields were active, and keeping the atmosphere contained and separate from that of the planet, so no winds were present. The man soaked up the sunshine and released a slow breath, purging anxiety and realigning his internal Edeva energy. It wanted to swirl about and gain in power, but he gently restricted and redirected the flow, calming himself and letting the prickly energy soak into all of his body's limbs, revitalizing and energizing him in a healing wash that partially counteracted the decay within his body.<p>

That decay was his continual source of frustration…but in order to heal it, he had to let go of said frustration. Quite the paradox, and one that he had yet to overcome. He sensed a presence behind him.

"_Excuse me_…" a timid female voice interrupted his quiet.

"_Yes, Emy. What is it?_" he said calmly.

"_A new report on the Wraith. They turned back an assault by Atlantis_."

Romulus opened his eyes and slowly stood up. "_Details please_."

"_One of Atlantis's large vessels attacked a Wraith world under our surveillance. There was a massive Wraith fleet assembled there…we missed its arrival. They turned back the assault, but Atlantis did manage to damage some of their surface Hives with a pesqua attack. They caught them with their armored shields down_."

"_Damage to the Atlantis ship?_"

"_None. They withdrew before being overwhelmed. They did manage to destroy a number of smaller ships before they fled_."

Romulus nodded. "_Thank you. I'll review the surveillance logs later_."

The woman nodded and withdrew.

Romulus turned and walked to the railing on the porch, leaned heavily on it and stared out at the waterworld that his city ship was floating on. Unlike Lantea, this world had no land at all, and was thus off the Wraith's radar, allowing Romulus to rebuild Alba Longa in the light of day, unlike the rest of their facilities that had to remain hidden underground or in deep space. Here at least, his people could find peace in solitude as they patiently planned the downfall of the Wraith.

Romulus stood there, silently, for more than an hour thinking. He eventually left without any conclusions, only more questions.


End file.
